Were any of you around when 9/11 happened during Vegas mtg?

Vivid memories. Stupid GSK field people got on Greyhound buses and traveled across the country home! Many 4-5 days+!! Fights over people passing gas, using the small bathrooms for "necessary" bodily functions & smelling up buses et al! I bolted to the Vegas airport in a taxi and rented a car! Took a nice drive east stopping at nice hotels for dinners, drinks and took my time for 3 days getting home! I would have quit the company before boarding a bus with a bunch of smelly reps!

 

Future leader here - I wasn’t there because at the time I was in 3rd grade

 

And 3rd grade was the best four years of your life.

 

I stayed in Vegas at the MGM, ate 3 great GSK provided buffets each day, with bi-daily updates, laid by the pool, did some gambling, and waited until the airports reopened that Friday or Saturday afternoon, and flew home in a few hours. Very surreal/sad time, but made the best of it.

 

i was on my way to airport when news of 1st tower hit. Thought it was some Cessna and pilot had a heart attack or something. As I parked I heard about the 2nd tower. Knew immediately it was terrorism. As I walked up to gate I saw everything go from ‘on time’ to ‘delayed’ or ‘cancelled’. Decided not to check in bag, went to my gate, and watched the rest of it unfold with other reps. Crazy

 

Two

 

I am no longer with GSK, having left in 2009 after being forced out with almost 25 years. I am thankful for the nice severance and healthcare until Medicare. I read this board occasionally, and this thread struck a nerve with me. I was a sales director at the time, and I was standing by the elevators watching a TV when the first plane went into the first tower. A bit later, the second one flew in. We waited it out, and flew back to NC on the very first plan that landed in NC from anywhere. It was a surreal time. We boarded the planes with only our wallets, car keys, flip phones, and the clothes on our backs. Everything else was shipped to us and arrived several days later. Our world changed then.
April of that year, I had taken my three daughters to New York for spring break. We tried to wait it out in the lines for the towers to go up to the top, however the lines were just too long.
Now here we are, 17 years later, very close to getting pounded by Florence.
At the end of the day, relationships and loved ones are what matters.

 

HILARIOUS & very likely true! (future "leader" LOL!) Great comeback my friend!

 

Nice post. Don’t mean to minimize your potential harm from Florence but wonder how many people opposed cap and trade policies that were first proposed in the 90’s with the Kyoto protocol which could have minimized gas emissions and minimized the heat up of our oceans which is causing more severe and violent storms. I know the Koch brothers and the Republican Party opposed them. Now the taxpayers get to bail out those who opposed policies that could have helped them.
From what I see both N and S Carolina red states.
I am sorry for what is about to happen but want you to know I have voted to minimize climate change for the last 25 years as I’ve been a believer

 

Thank goodness I had the last possible flight that morning to make the 1:00 pm opening meeting. Everyone went early for a four day beating that could have been handled on a conference call. What a beating!! Never made it past starting to pack. It’s amazing how after the so called national sales meetings to get everyone fired up 90% of the sales force takes off the first day back as a vacation or sick day. What a beating all rah rah meetings produce.

 

Good for you. But we all believe in climate change. There was an ice age....then the earth warmed....long before the industrial revolution. You do understand that one of the largest cities in Texas used to be Freeport. But a large Hurricane wiped it out....in the 1880’s. Then there was a migration to Galveston. But another large hurricane wiped it out....in the early 1900’s. Then there was a migration to Houston. This has been happening for a long time.

 

Good for you. But we all believe in climate change. There was an ice age....then the earth warmed....long before the industrial revolution. You do understand that one of the largest cities in Texas used to be Freeport. But a large Hurricane wiped it out....in the 1880’s. Then there was a migration to Galveston. But another large hurricane wiped it out....in the early 1900’s. Then there was a migration to Houston. This has been happening for a long time. The Atlantic waters off the coast of Africa have always been warm leaving the east coast and the Gulf of Mexico vulnerable. The numbers and strength are no different than they were 100 plus years ago.

 

You are totally incorrect. Quit listening to Fox News and the Koch brothers. More frequent and more rain and coastlines more threatened. Water levels rising more rapidly due to heat levels rising in the ocean. Ever heard of physics? Basic laws explain co2 and methane and effects on atmosphere. 98% of scientists except those paid off by Koch brothers agree

 

About the only thing you listed that they agree on is that the climate is changing. WE ALL BELIEVE THAT. Where they differ is on the extent that it is man made and if there is anything beyond symbolic gestures that can be done to change it. Now excuse me while I fill up my F250

 

https://youtu.be/OwqIy8Ikv-c

This sums it up

 

Richard Lindzen is very controversial and many scientists disagree with him. Another big claim of his is that lung cancer has only been weakly linked to cancer. In 1994 Lindzen said he was “willing to take bets that global average temperatures in 20 years will in fact be lower than they are now”. Think he’s wrong!! Do some research and look at global warming graphs and look to more opinions than just one person who pretty much stands alone in his opinions!!

 

Hope you and your family get through the Hurricane safely. As for 9/11, my flight was en route to St. Louis for a connection to Vegas. The pilot told us he was making a landing in Pittsburg per orders of the FAA. I suspected a bombing somewhere. We had to sit on the tarmac for a while and were able to use our cell phones while waiting to de board. I called my husband who watched the 2nd tower fall while we spoke and I relayed this to those around me. Unfortunately, I had no GSK colleagues on my flight. I befriended two other females in the airport and none of us had a clue about what was going on except we were all stranded.
Hotel rooms were already getting booked up in the area so one of my new friends suggested the three of us share a cab ride to her home in Johnstown to ‘get out of Dodge’. We stayed at the local Holiday Inn in Johnstown, which also happened to be where personnel from United Airlines had gathered for their deceased crew members for the Shanksville crash of United Flight 93. I watched the President’s address to the nation with one of my travel mates in the restaurant over dinner. Afterwards I saw the coverage on TV and couldn’t believe my eyes. The friend in Johnstown and I continue to communicate. We will never forget that day.